


Tiny Tim vs Santa Claus

by CloakedSparrow



Series: Collected Bat-Family Stories [5]
Category: Bat Family (DCU), Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Robin (Comics)
Genre: Adopted Children, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Relationships, Bat Family, Child Neglect, Found Family, Gen, No Dialogue, No Romance, No Sex, Post-Hush, Pre-Hush, Selina Kyle & Tim Drake friendship, Tim is a born and raised Gothamite, of course he assumes Santa Clause is a costumed villain, surrogate parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 12:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11013210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloakedSparrow/pseuds/CloakedSparrow
Summary: Or, How Tim Drake Met Selina Kyle before he met Batman.





	Tiny Tim vs Santa Claus

Once when he was a small boy, Tim’s parents had to be out of the country during the holidays. They hired a babysitter to look after him. The woman wasn’t a bad babysitter, but she’d taken the job because it was good money and she’d watched Tim before and knew he wasn’t a difficult child. She missed her family and spent a lot of time calling and skyping them.

She did however, take the time to set up a tree with Tim and bake cookies for Santa Claus. This is when the woman realized that Tim was completely unfamiliar with the concept of Santa Claus. Hoping she wasn’t contradicting a religious practice, the babysitter told Tim the basics about Santa. Being a born Gothamite, Tim immediately thought that Santa was an escaped psycho from Arkham that his non-Gotham-native babysitter didn’t know about.

The poor child was terrified.

The babysitter had no clue what she had done. She continued along celebrating the holidays as best she could without her family. She talked to them every chance she got, watched her favorite holiday films, went carolling and holiday shopping. Tim was always quiet and pretty much entertained himself, plus he hadn’t even known about Santa Claus, so she didn’t think anything of the fact that he didn’t join in.

Tim kept a vigilant eye out for any sign that he was under surveillance from this Santa Claus psycho. He kept the fireplace going 24/7 and made sure all the doors and windows were locked. He double checked the alarm system after the babysitter went to bed.

A few days before Christmas, Tim started to see signs that someone had been surveying his house. Convinced that Santa was after them, he set up a trap for the costumed villain that night.

He was surprised and incredibly relieved when he actually caught a cat burglar instead.

The burglar, a woman named Selina who was actually dressed as a cat, was both impressed and irritated at being caught by a mere child. Until she started talking to the boy and realized that he was in fact an extraordinary child. Then, she was just charmed.

Tim had intended to simply warn Selina about Santa being on the loose before letting her go; after all, he had bigger concerns than a failed burglary attempt. However, the woman was so nice to him, listening and explaining what the whole Santa thing was actually about patiently but without talking down to him. He ended up offering her some of the cookies intended for the imaginary Santa and telling her all about being alone over the holidays (and most days) and how he missed his mom and worried that maybe his parents didn’t like him very much. 

Selina adored Tim almost immediately, and just as immediately, she had a great dislike for the Drakes. If they weren’t such a wealthy and prominent family, she would have just stolen the precious child. Instead, she made it a habit of stopping by the Drake house a couple nights a month to check on the boy. She always made sure to stop by around the holidays.

Tim understood that burglary was wrong. But Selina was always so kind to him and she never hurt anyone. He never told anyone about her visits. He loved having someone he could talk to about anything, someone who could give him advice or even just listen. He came to understand that right and wrong weren’t quite as black and white as he’d thought they were.

He didn’t tell her when he figured out who Batman and Robin were though. It wasn’t his secret to tell. Likewise, he’d never tell anyone the identity of the mysterious cat burglar prowling the Gotham elite.

Normally, Batman made sure to handle Catwoman himself, there was definitely a personal issue there but Tim decided to stay out of it as long as Bruce held it together. The first time Tim actually encountered Catwoman as Robin, he had no idea how to respond. He knew revealing his true identity was not an option but he also couldn’t bring himself to risk harming the woman who had always been so kind to him.

Bruce thought Tim hesitated because Catwoman was a woman, which led to a completely unnecessary lecture on how female criminals were just as dangerous as their male counterparts and, of course, extra training. The fact that Tim had trained with Lady Shiva and never hesitated with any of the other female criminals they’d encountered seemed to go over his mentor’s head.

Selina did not recognize the new Robin as Tim, however she did notice that Tim was steadily showing more signs of sleep deprivation and was frequently hiding minor injuries. Eventually,Tim had to tell her the truth before she made child abuse accusations. Since he and Bruce Wayne had no relationship as far as the public was aware, he figured it was safe enough. He didn’t tell her who Batman was and she didn’t ask.

Selina and Tim were careful to keep their relationship a secret because it would be dangerous for both of them if their enemies knew about it.

Until, one day, the death of one of Bruce’s old friends and the appearance of a new villain known as Hush pushed Bruce to revealing his identity to Selina. Bruce assumed Tim took the news calmly because he was a logical minded person and because he trusted Bruce’s judgment. In reality, Tim was just so relived that he no longer had to keep this final, significant, secret that separated the two adults he trusted the most.

Tim decided it was only fair to give Selina a heads-up before telling Bruce about their relationship. He knew how Bruce could be. However, Selina was too amused at the fact that the so-called ‘world’s greatest detective’ hadn’t figured out that his sometime-ally/sometime-nemesis/sometime-lover and his surrogate-son-turned-adopted-son/crime-fighting-partner knew each other all along. She told Tim to keep it secret a little longer and play along with however Bruce decided to handle it.

Watching Tim pretend to mistrust her while blatantly pulling his punches in front of a clueless Batman was one of the highlights of the whole Hush fiasco, as far as Selina was concerned.

When Hush was caught and Bruce had somehow gone back to mistrusting Selina, Tim came clean. It was rough for a while, but once the dust settled, it was nice to have the people he considered his real parents together.

The next holiday season was not what anyone would call normal, but for the first time that he could recall, Tim never felt lonely or unwanted.


End file.
